Trinity 18
Beloved. In our Lutheran confessions we read [SA III, 4]: God is superabundantly generous in His grace: First, through the spoken word, by which the forgiveness of sins is preached in the whole world….Second, through baptism. Third, through the holy Sacrament of the Altar. Fourth, through the power of the Keys. Also through the mutual conversation and consolation of brethren. In other words, God makes available to us/ offers us the forgiveness of sins in so many ways. He doesn’t want us to be without it; He wants to surround us with the forgiveness of sin. And that is a good and absolutely vital thing for us. –But there is a warning here: just because God makes the forgiveness of sin and His grace so readily available, does not mean that it is common/ something we can take for granted/ something of little value. Instead, let us remember what God’s grace and the forgiveness of sin is: His greatest gift to us, brought about for us by His own suffering and death. So much does God love us!
Why is God so superabundantly generous in His grace offering it to us seemingly “every time we turn around”? Certainly part of the reason is that we are always in need of it. God surrounds us with air/ it is so common. Why? –Because we need it to live. And so too spiritually. We always sin and are always in need of forgiveness. And also tied in with this is the very fact that God wants us to be certain of our salvation. By all the time offering us the forgiveness of sins, by being superabundantly generous in His grace, God is constantly assuring us that our sins are forgiven, that in Christ we stand in a right relation with God, that we are His dear children and heirs of heaven. In other words, God wants us to be certain of our salvation. If you are ever in doubt about your salvation, about whether your sins are forgiven you, about how God is disposed toward you, run to the Gospel, remember what God has done for you in holy baptism by washing away your sin, bringing you into His holy family, uniting you with Christ and hold on to/ reclaim that; run to Holy Communion where Jesus comes to you in a wondrous way and unites with you, giving you His very body and blood; run to confession that you may hear and receive the holy absolution pronounced for sin or for that particular sin that is especially troubling you; seek out fellow Christians that they might be an encouragement to you and you to them.
Our salvation is such a great and wonderful thing that God does not want us to be uncertain about it and so He makes that forgiveness and His grace richly available to us. And that speaks volumes also to full richness of Jesus’ work. His holy, sinless life and suffering and death on the cross did not just bring about a small miniscule amount of forgiveness that has to be rationed out. Instead, it brought about the full free rich and abundant forgiveness of sin. Remember, because it was the blood of God that was shed, it has infinite worth and value for the sins of all.
Is it any wonder St. Paul begins his epistle to the Corinthians? I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus. St. Paul, in our text, is always thanking God for His grace that He gave these Christians and all Christians, even you and me. This is the reason why we can be certain of our salvation and must never doubt it. Our salvation is certain because it is based on God’s grace to us in Jesus. We did or do nothing to earn or deserve heaven. Remember, we are conceived and born in sin and we daily, hourly, minute by minute add sin upon sin. And yes, we often fight sin, resist temptation, and are successful in putting down the desires of our old sinful nature. But at the end of the day, we still sin—sometimes knowingly, other times unknowingly; sometimes willfully, other times in weakness. So we are not heirs of heaven, certain of our salvation, because of who we are, or by what we have done or haven’t done but solely by God’s grace to us in Jesus. All that we are and have as Christians is because of God’s grace to us in Jesus. And this grace of God is because He is compassionate and merciful to us sinners. He doesn’t give us what we earn and deserve but has compassion on us. We see this in Jesus during His earthly ministry. We read in the Gospel [Mk 6.34]: When [Jesus] went ashore He saw a great crowd, and He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And He began to teach them many things. Isn’t that what it must be like when our Lord looks out over the face of the earth? —He sees a great crowd and has compassion on us.
But not only are we be certain of our salvation because of our Lord’s compassion, but our salvation is certain because it is based on Jesus on His work. God could have all the compassion in the world on us, but it would do us no good unless it is closely bound and united with Jesus’ work and merit. God could indeed feel great compassion for us, but unless He can act on it, that compassion can do us no good. As a merciful, loving and gracious God, He has compassion on us and wants to save us from our sin and its consequences; but He is also a just and holy God who must punish sin. As a just and holy God, He demands that His law be kept; and as a just and holy God, He must punish when His law is broken/ sinned against. We can’t live without sinning and so we deserve nothing but God’s wrath and punishment. But precisely because He has compassion on us and wants to show us grace, Jesus, the Son of God, the Second Person of the holy Trinity became also true man. Jesus came to obey God’s holy Law for us in our place—to do what we cannot do on our own; and He came to take our sins on Himself/ to become the world’s sinner and to suffer on the cross for us God’s full wrath and punishment over our sin. Jesus came to be our Substitute in obeying the Law of God and in suffering for our failure to do so. In this way, both God’s compassion and mercy and His holiness have been satisfied. That’s why God’s compassion and Jesus’ merit are most closely bound together. Because of Jesus and His life, suffering, death and resurrection, our salvation is certain. Our salvation is certain because it comes from God’s grace to us sinners and based on Jesus and His work.
I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus. You were enriched in him in every way, in all your speaking and all your knowledge, because the testimony about Christ was established in you. By God’s grace, we have, in Jesus, every heavenly, divine treasure. We who on our own have no spiritual good—no righteousness of our own, nothing that would make God “obligated” to open heaven to us, nothing that makes us “right” before God —now have and enjoy every heavenly and spiritual good and blessing. We were enriched in Jesus/ made rich in Him. Here is that glorious gift of faith. Faith receives all of Jesus’ work and blessing. It receives the forgiveness of sin, Jesus’ perfect righteousness, peace with God, eternal life, the gifts and working of the Holy Spirit, etc.
So, yes, we can be certain of our salvation because through the gift of faith that the Holy Spirit works in us and gives us, we are receiving the fullness and riches of Jesus. We have a share in Jesus’ wealth—all His heavenly gifts and graces. Through that Holy Spirit worked faith, we are united to Jesus. He is in us and we are in Him. Think of Holy Baptism which for most of us was the time the Holy Spirit first created faith in Jesus in us: there we were united with Jesus in His death and resurrection; there we were clothed/ covered with Jesus. There we see the certainty of our salvation—would God shut heaven to Jesus, His dear Son? Certainly not! How, then, could He shut heaven to us who by faith are united with Him and clothed with Him? How about the Holy Supper where we receive in our very mouths Jesus’ body and blood and by faith are united with Him as we literally, physically take Him in us? So united with Jesus by faith and literally, how can our salvation be uncertain to us? It can’t be, if our salvation is based not on us but on Jesus and His merits, His work for us.
Faith simply receives Jesus’ gifts and unites us with Him. And, by God’s grace, this faith is worked in us by the Holy Spirit working in the word and sacraments: because the testimony about Christ was established in you. With the word and sacrament, we are lacking nothing when it comes to our salvation. They both offer and give the blessings/ riches Jesus won for us by His life, suffering and death and gloriously proclaimed by His resurrection. And now the glorious promise of God: As a result you do not lack any gift as you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also keep you strong until the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. We, then, dear Christian, can be certain of our salvation because God is faithful to His word and promise. We can be certain of our salvation because it is based on God’s grace, because it is based on Jesus’ merit, and because it is based on God’s faithfulness. Do you notice a pattern here? God has done and is doing everything necessary for our salvation. That’s why we can be certain of it. We need never doubt our salvation. Never entertain the thought from the devil to question your salvation. To doubt or question your salvation is not pious; it is not humility; it is rejecting God’s work and promise to you, it is questioning the work of Jesus.
Our text: you do not lack any gift as you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. We don’t yet have/ enjoy our final salvation—soul and body eternally in heaven with all the saints, angels and Triune God. That will first come on the Last Day. We don’t yet enjoy what we hope for so now is the time the devil will come to us to try to get us to doubt our salvation or despair of it. Don’t fall for it, dear Christian. Instead, when doubts arise about your salvation, remain steadfast in faith, love and knowledge of Jesus and there is nothing to fear. Believe our Lord’s promise in our text: He will also keep you strong until the end. We don’t stay in the faith and are faithful by our own strength and ability. It is the Lord who will also keep you strong until the end. But the Lord does not work in a vacuum. Instead, He works in and through His holy word and sacrament. And He is with us. The fact that our salvation is certain does not mean that we can ignore our salvation; it does not mean we can live in a carnal security, sin as much as we want because we think: my salvation is certain; God will see to it. That’s sin. That’s tempting God.
Instead, when we hear that our salvation is certain because it is based on God’s grace, and on the merit of Jesus and on God’s faithfulness, shouldn’t that lead us all the more to the Lord and to seek and desire His things and the things that make for our salvation all the more? Certain of our salvation, wouldn’t we want, out of love, thankfulness and just simple delight of the heart want to be all the more where our Lord has promised to meet us: in His word and Sacrament and in church. Certain of our salvation, wouldn’t we strive, as St. Peter [2 Pt 1.10] writes to be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure? But if we are honest with ourselves and live lives of repentance, we will more than likely have to deal with doubts arising about our salvation. That’s why we need to refresh and comfort ourselves that our salvation is certain. God is faithful even when we are unfaithful and in His grace and because of the merit of Jesus He will bring us safely to Himself in heaven in spite of our weakness. Therefore I always thank my God … because of the grace of God given to [us] in Christ Jesus.v